The Preschool Years

• Trouble learning common nursery rhymes, such as “Jack and Jill”
• Difficulty learning (and remembering) the names of letters in the alphabet
• Seems to be unable to recognize letters in his/her own name
• Mispronounces familiar words; persistent “baby talk”
• Doesn’t recognize rhyming patterns like cat, bat, rat
• A family history of reading and/or spelling difficulties

Kindergarten & First Grade

Reading

• Reading errors that show no connection to the sounds of the letters on the page–will say “puppy” instead of the written word “dog” on an illustrated page with a dog shown
• Does not understand that words can be segmented
• Complains about how hard reading is, or “disappears” when it is time to read
• A history of reading problems in parents or siblings
• Speaking
• Cannot sound out simple words, such as cat, map, nap
• Does not associate letters with sounds, such as the letter “b” with the /b/ sound

Strengths

• Curiosity
• A great imagination
• The ability to figure things out
• Eager embrace of new ideas
• Getting the gist of things
• A good understanding of new concepts, when print language is not involved
• Surprising maturity
• A larger oral vocabulary for his/her age group
• Enjoyment in solving puzzles
• Talent at building models
• Excellent comprehension of verbally presented stories

Second Grade and Up

Reading

• Very slow in acquiring reading skills.  Reading is slow and effortful
• Trouble reading unfamiliar words, often making guessing because he or she cannot sound out the word
• Doesn’t seem to have a strategy for reading new words
• Avoids reading out loud

Speaking

• Searches for a specific word and ends up using vague language, such as “stuff” or “thing” a lot. Challenges with word finding are apparent
• Pauses, hesitates, and/or uses lots of “umm’s” when speaking
• Confuses words that sound alike, such as saying “tornado” for “volcano,” substituting “lotion” for “ocean”
• Mispronunciation of long, unfamiliar, or complicated words
• Seems to need extra time to respond to questions

School and Life

• Trouble with remembering dates, names, telephone numbers, random lists
• Has trouble finishing tests on time
• Extreme difficulty learning a foreign language
• Messy handwriting
• Low self-esteem that may not be immediately visible

Strengths

• Excellent thinking skills: conceptualization, reasoning, imagination, abstraction
• Learning that is accomplished best through meaning rather than rote memorization
• Ability to get the “big picture”
• A high level of understanding of what is read to him
• The ability to read and to understand at a high level overlearned (that is, highly practiced) words in a special area of interest; for example, if his or her hobby is restoring cars, the student may be able to read auto mechanic magazines
• Improvement is usually seen in an area of interest, they typically develop a miniature vocabulary that he/she can read
• A surprisingly sophisticated listening vocabulary
• Excellence in areas not dependent on reading, such as math, computers, and visual arts, or excellence in more conceptual (versus factoid-driven) subjects, such as philosophy, biology, social studies, neuroscience, and creative writing

Young Adults & Adults

Reading

• A childhood history of reading and spelling difficulties
• While reading skills have developed over time, reading still requires great effort and is done at a slow pace
• Rarely reads for pleasure
• Slow reading of most materials—books, manuals, subtitles in films
• Avoids reading aloud

Speaking

• Not fluent, often anxious while speaking
• Pausing or frequent hesitations when speaking
  • using lots of “um’s” during speaking, lack of glibness
  • using imprecise language, for example, “stuff,” “things,” instead of the proper name of an object
• Often pronounces the names of people and places incorrectly; stumbles over parts of words
• Difficulty remembering names of people and places; confuses names that sound alike
• Struggles to retrieve words; often says “it was on the tip of my tongue”
• Rarely has a fast response in conversations and/or writing; struggles when put on the spot
• Spoken vocabulary is smaller than listening vocabulary
• Avoids saying words that might be mispronounced
• Earlier oral language difficulties persist

School & Life

• Despite good grades, will often say that he or she is “dumb” or is concerned that peers perceive them as “dumb”
• Penalized by multiple-choice tests
• Frequently sacrifices social life for studying
• Suffers extreme fatigue when reading
• Performs rote clerical tasks poorly

Strengths

• The maintenance of strengths noted in the school-age period
• A high learning capability
• A noticeable improvement when given additional time on multiple-choice examinations
• Noticeable excellence when focused on a highly specialized area, such as medicine, law, public policy, finance, architecture, or basic science
• Excellence in writing if content and not spelling are important
• A noticeable articulateness in the expression of ideas and feelings
• Exceptional empathy and warmth, and feeling for others
• Success in areas not dependent on rote memory
• A talent for high-level conceptualization and the ability to come up with original insights
• Big-picture thinking
• Inclination to think outside of the box
• A noticeable resilience and ability to adapt

 

Source: Overcoming Dyslexia © Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D.